Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Oregon PSR and our community partner organizations have begun planning the annual Portland-area memorial of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which this year will be held on Friday, August 6th beginning at 6:00 PM at the Japanese American Historical Plaza at Waterfront Park in downtown Portland (NW Naito Parkway & Couch Street).

In response to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s event will be a little different. It will include a brief ceremonial gathering at the Japanese American Historical Plaza featuring Rev. Eisei Ikenaga of Portland’s Nichiren Buddhist Temple. Following the remembrance ceremony, we will walk about two blocks to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon Annex (121 NW 2nd Avenue) for an exhibit called We Hold Sacred curated by Oregon PSR Advisory Board members Chisao Hata and Yukiyo Kawano.

We are experiencing temperatures in the upper 90’s and even higher throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, and wildfires are already burning throughout our state and region. While no one wants to repeat the severe air quality crisis of last summer, we also know that it is essential to be prepared.

Great news! In June, the US Supreme Court denied a petition to overturn Washington State's 2017 denial of water quality permits for Millennium Bulk Terminals' proposed coal export facility in Longview, WA. Multiple courts at the state and federal levels have now held that Washington State was within its rights to protect public health and safety from the increased air and water pollution that would have come with transporting coal along the Columbia River. With the Supreme Court's dismissal of this final legal appeal, this is the official end of this coal export proposal.

All the major open-access slide shows on the Public Health and Social Justice website, curated by Oregon PSR Advisory Board Member Martin Donohoe, MD, have recently been updated (6/23/21 update). Open access means that all or a portion of any slide show can be used by anyone, with appropriate citation. The site addresses the social, economic, environmental, human rights, and cultural contributors to health and illness. Some of the content focuses on the medical humanities and the history of medicine.

With climate change causing temperatures in parts of Oregon to reach upwards of 100 degrees later this week, a number of cooling centers are opening throughout Oregon to help seniors, people with disabilities and other health conditions, and unhoused members of our community to stay safe.

“Heat affects everyone, but older adults and people with disabilities are particularly at risk,’’ said Paul Iarrobino, Multnomah County’s Aging and Disability Services program supervisor. “Our community has come together to help.”

In May 2021, we welcomed Samantha Hernandez (pictured above) to the Oregon PSR staff as our new Climate Justice Organizer. Samantha will be supporting a wide range of Oregon PSR's Healthy Climate Program work including our advocacy efforts in coalitions to stop fossil fuels and nuclear power and advance a just and equitable transition to clean energy. She will also work on our partnership with the Oregon Justice Resource Center to re-frame mass incarceration as a public health crisis as well as issues relating to the intersection of public health and water quality and forests. Here's what Samantha has to say about joining Oregon PSR:

Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei (pictured above) is a dear friend and colleague in Gaza whom I met on a medical delegation to Gaza with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. He is psychiatrist and is the Director of Gaza Community Mental Health Program. You could not imagine a more gentle, thoughtful and lovely human being. 

Our US  tax dollars ($3.8 billion each year) go to the Israeli military. This assault and all the horrors now being perpetuated by the Israeli military are happening on our dime. Please speak up if you are outraged and despair at this current intensification of the violence and the disregard for human rights and human life. -Maxine Fookson, RN, MN, Oregon PSR Board Member

Oregon PSR is celebrating our 40th year of action for a more healthy, peaceful, and just world. Since our founding, our dedicated members, volunteers, and donors have been the driving force behind our mission to bring the perspective and expertise of healthcare and public health to the interconnected movements for a healthy climate, a nuclear-free world, and a more safe, peaceful, and just society.

Oregon PSR is celebrating our 40th year of work for a more healthy, peaceful, and just world in 2021. We began from the powerful vision of our founders who sat on Dr. Karen Steingart’s living room floor and strategized about how a health message could help prevent nuclear war. Over the next forty years, our members, volunteers, and donors contributed their passion and leadership to the organization, bringing a broad public health frame to issues such as environmental justice, gun violence, and climate health, learning and growing along the way.